SEO Best Practices
SEO : Beyond the Keyword
Whether you are well versed in the SEO world or not, these three letters can make or break your website and, as a result, your online reputation. Learning SEO best practices for yourself and your website can be the difference that makes your business move in a positive direction.
In case you are unaware, SEO means search engine optimization. In layman’s terms, it means there are certain terms, or keywords, you can use throughout your website to ensure that a search engine picks it up and puts it in front of eyeballs. For example, if you are a local ice cream shop that specializes in having unique flavors and toppings, you could use the words “best flavors in New York” or “unique ice cream experiences.” When someone is looking up different kinds of ice cream shops in New York, yours would come up due to the implementation of certain words AKA SEO keywords. Consider this one of the SEO best practices that you can use in your website.
Besides keywords though, there is a whole world of practices that you can implement in your website to enhance it even more than it already is.
On-Page SEO
Think about how much content there is on the internet nowadays. With so much competition, it can be hard to stand out amongst the crowd. However, if you have already implemented keywords throughout your website, you are already using one of the SEO best practices available. However, it never hurts to take it up a notch.
Using on-page SEO can absolutely improve the way your website ranks amongst others and therefore, reach more customers. On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. If this sounds weird, do not worry. It is more about the content and the coding behind your web page that can be optimized to appear first amongst the search engines searches.
Title of Your Page
On-page SEO can be implemented by enhancing certain aspects of your website. For example, start with the title of your page. Is it catchy? Does it represent what you, your content, and/or business are trying to achieve? Will people read it and be curious to continue to scroll downwards? Think about this and create better titles for your pages. Think about something that will make people click on it. Remember, this title is going to be what shows up in the search results as the title of the snippet that your website appears in. Make sure that it is eye-grabbing enough to drag a user into what you have to offer.
Meta Description
Meta descriptions are a bit more complicated for someone who is new to this world of websites. Meta descriptions will not rank you any higher or lower, but it is more of an advertisement. In just about 155 characters, search engines show your meta description in the search results. This is where you describe what is on your page. It may not rank you higher or lower, but it will help search engines know why they should pick up your website over another’s. In your meta description, write a description of your website or content on it that will tell what is on your page and why someone should click on your link over anyone else’s.
It is especially important to know that to implement meta descriptions as one of the SEO best practices, it is important to include in your meta description phrases that people are looking for. Back to our ice cream shop in New York, make sure to include “we have the craziest toppings in New York” in your meta description. If people are searching for “unique things to do in New York” and your ice cream shop’s meta description shows up, more likely than not, that user will click on it. Hopefully they will love your ice cream, the toppings, and flavors enough to actually go and purchase some!
Optimized Pictures
If you are writing an article – you need to have images! Nobody wants to read an article without any visuals. Besides going through the time to pick out which image goes with your article, it matters that the picture goes with the website. How weird would it be if in your New York ice cream shop there is a picture of a horse in the mountains?
So you have to make sure your images are relevant and make sense throughout your article. Now, it also matters what caption and text goes with it. The caption and text will also help Google pick up your image and article to your future customers. If someone is searching through images “New York” and you have optimized your pictures so each caption and text includes “New York”, your ice cream shop will pop up. That is your goal! If you do this, you will achieve one of the SEO best practices around.
Off-Page SEO
If you thought SEO was all for show, you’re wrong! There is also a whole behind-the-scenes aspect to it that is also important when you are optimizing your website. Welcome to off page SEO 101! At its core, it is all about working to optimize your website outside of its boundaries. If you are trying to optimize your off page SEO, there are a few key points to hit to make sure you are implementing the SEO best practices.
Link Building
As one of the most effective ways to improve your off page SEO method, make sure your website is linked in other websites. If more websites and blogs are talking about your New York ice cream shop, search engines will think your content is more popular, and put you up front on the rankings.
Social Media Marketing
Having a social media presence could be the make-it or break-it factor for your website. If you are not on social media, you are missing a chunk of your audience. This helps you not only reach your audience and connect with them, but helps you show off more content beyond your website. You could provide links to go back to your website, but having social media marketing helps your brand get out there in ways that your website simply cannot do alone.
Social Bookmarking
Although not as popular as it used to be, and quite time consuming, social bookmarking is going on forum websites and implementing your content there. For example, if there is a forum on reddit.com talking about best spots in New York, you could answer with your website and some statements about why tourists should visit your ice cream shop. You will get more clicks and even more traffic by simply doing this.
How to Implement the SEO Best Practices
This was a lot of information! SEO is not just keywords; it is so much more than that! It takes hard work to make sure your website is completely optimized, and sometimes it is too much work for just one person.
For extra help, guidance, or even how to start optimizing your website, contact Perfectly Optimized today! They specialize in making sure both your off and on pages of SEO are not only optimized, but actually working in making sure your website is being picked up by search engines. Not only that, but these practices are constantly changing. Maybe you do not have the time to make sure you are on top of the changing algorithms and laws of the internet.
But Perfectly Optimized does. Our job is to make sure that your content pops up first on search engines, bringing you more people to your website and business. Whether it is that ice cream shop in New York, or anything else, Perfectly Optimized can handle any kind of website or business that needs help. And with today’s environment of constantly having to be online and up to date, make sure it is done Perfectly.